Joe's Tip of the Week: Time Management

Hey UMass! I'm Joe, your friendly neighborhood peer advisor! On behalf of everyone here at Undergraduate Advising, allow me to welcome you to the new school year! If this is your first semester, you might have expected the workload to ramp up slowly. If so...

 SURPRISE!

(If you haven't seen Zoolander, you'll need to watch it now. Go ahead. I'll wait.)

Time management is a critical skill in college, because most of the work you do is outside of class on your own time. If you can't use your time wisely, you're going to have a rough start to your semester. Now, I understand some of you are still adjusting to life back at school...

...but it's time to shake it off and get crackin'. Here are a few tips I use to keep myself from wasting time.

1. Get Moving!

You might have a rough start and just feel like getting back in bed, but don't give up! NEVER GETTING STARTED is the greatest enemy of productivity. If don't start, you'll never finish.

2. Make a Plan!

So you're up. Good. Now what are you going to do? Save yourself the time consuming task of checking each class on Moodle every time you sit down to do work. Instead, keep a record of things you need to do, including homework assignments, projects, test dates, and whatever else is on your plate. If you're "organizationally challenged" like me, the best way to do this is to keep a simple to-do list with due dates. Bring it everywhere, and update it constantly. If you're a pro at thinking ahead, get yourself a planner! Before you get your hopes up, none of the official UMass planners come in "Blue Steel."

3. Start Small!

If you're not doing anything, you're not managing your time wisely. I keep myself busy by putting every little thing I've got to do on my planner. Real-life examples from my current to-do list include:

• Call Mummy (Yes, I call my mom "Mummy." Sue me.)
• Put up poster of The Dude
• Email Professor D.
• Make hair appointment (It's not easy being really, really, ridiculously good looking.)

There are few feelings in life as satisfying as crossing something off your list. The benefits of this are twofold: One, you'll get motivated once you see your list of tasks start to shrink. Two, the less little things you have to do, the less excuses you'll have for avoiding the big tasks. I think everyone knows the feeling of having so much to do that you clean your room instead.

Congratulations! You're now a graduate of The Derek Zoolander School for College Kids Who Can't Plan Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too. Remember, if you apply these tips and keep using any other strategies that work for you, you could even save enough time to grab an orange-mocha-frappuccino!